This morning I turned off the motherboard audio, removed the drivers, and
installed an Audigy Gamer in my 3 GHz Intel D865PERL based computer. It
works great and sounds much better and quieter than the Intel motherboard
audio.

Trouble is, it also kills my network connection. When I try an ipconfig
/renew, I get the message "An operation was attempted on something that is
not a socket". If I pull the card and roll Windows XP Pro back to yesterday
everything is OK again. As soon as I stick the card back in, Windows
installs a driver (or something!), which causes the problem to reappear.
There's no hardware conflict (network is dead with drivers and no card) -
just some software problem. I've looked in the MS Knowledgebase and searched
Google, but none of the solutions there worked for me.I've been going around
and around with this since noon and need a clue. Any ideas will be much
appreciated.